- The best indie games of 2011.
- The 20 best Android games for 2011 from the Android Market.
- Top YouTube videos for 2011, straight from Google.
- While a lot of these I knew (and use frequently), many I didn’t: Environment variables in XP and Vista/7.
- 30 Best Sources for Linux/*BSD documentation.
- It’s time to end the war on drugs.
- Study links winning football and declining grades (done by economists at the University of Oregon, which is an appopriate place for that study).
- Why (and how) we’ve switched away from Google Maps. If I could convince one of these map providers to use the home-numbering data that I helped put together for a local Sunriver map, getting guests to units would be a lot easier, as the numbering scheme is a bit weird on some of the streets.
- Six writers, four producers, and the lyrics still suck.
- Death to .DS_Store.
- 10 More Common Misconceptions Dispelled.
- Great idea, might do this for the geek keys I have at the office: RJ-45 key chain and rack.
- Scheduled sending and email reminders in Gmail.
- The Hassle-Free Guide to Ripping Your Blu-Ray Collection. I have a Blu-Ray player now, just need a Blu-Ray drive for my HTPC to rip some of these things on.
- How NES Games (specifically, Super Mario Bros. 3) are made, in Japanese picture-book form.
- Tens of millions of HP LaserJet printers vulnerable to remote hacking.I can’t seem to find a list anywhere of the printers that are actually vulnerable, so I have no idea of the old HP 4100s I have here at the office need upgrades. I don’t have any of them attached to the internet, so I’m not too worried, but if anybody has a list, please share.
- Disney females brought to life (original artist is here).
- Using computer science to solve Where’s Waldo (“Where’s Wally” if you’re outside the US).
- Great list of online learning centers (my oldest daughter has been playing on Khan Academy now and again, but the list here is good for everybody).
- Automate your Dropbox with Dropbox Automator. Now that I have nearly 20GB of space on my Dropbox account (using my COCC.edu e-mail address, the ol’ Dropbox/Adwords referral game, the getting started tab, the Dropbox 2011 Quest, plus the social-media freebies) I might have to start using it more often for larger files and collections.
Category: Geekdom
Reading Material
Dec. 29th is Move Your Domain Day, and other SOPA Rants and Thoughts
While GoDaddy reversed their SOPA stance because of public outcry from fairly big names (and smaller single entities), you should still probably look at other options because SOPA is just such an ugly thing. It would mean the end of major sites with small teams. Naturally, groups like the RIAA are behind SOPA — the same RIAA who pirated $9 million worth of TV shows.
Seriously, if you don’t know anything about SOPA, read up here, here, here (linked to before), here and here. Oregon’s own Ron Wyden is trying to propose alternatives to SOPA.
Many folks (except maybe this guy) are trying to move their business away from SOPA-supporting companies, me being one of them. I manage 60+ domains personally as well as for a few companies I work for, and am slowly moving them away from GoDaddy.com to NameCheap (affiliate link — use that to transfer/buy, and I get a few pennies) for this along with a few other reasons. While GoDaddy.com is cheap, so is NameCheap, and their support/service has been better (and good lord, GoDaddy is always trying to upsell me a boat load of crap I don’t need/want every time I try to renew something there). NameCheap is joining in on the call for a move your domain day on December 29th with $7 transfers, and they’ll donate $1 to EFF for each domain transferred. While I can’t afford to move all my personal domains at once, I will be moving them when renewal time comes up (I’ve already moved several of the company-managed domains I deal with). There’s an easy step-by-step guide to move your domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap.
Why do poorly-written laws like this even see the light of day? Seriously, Congress, it’s not OK to not know how the Internet works (similarly, it’s not OK to not know how Congress works).
</rant>
Why The Sudden Fascination and Uproar With Smart Phone Rootkits?
In case you hadn’t heard the news (if you follow tech news at all, it’d be hard to miss), pretty much all the major providers use Carrier IQ software on their smart phones (it’s even a part of iOS on the iPhones, just slightly less sinister and easier to turn off). What is Carrier IQ? It has the potential to track and monitor everything to do on your phone and send it to a third party. Class-action lawsuits are being threatened, and it’s starting to really creep everybody out. There’s an Android Market App to see if you have it on your phone and ways to disable it.
What I find hilarious about all this? Carrier IQ was discovered and disabled by Android hackers at least nine months ago. I know the ACS Syndicate folks released a Samsung Epic 4G ROM back in March with it removed and opened up their tools so others could use them. So obviously this is old news — why the sudden uproar about it now? I’ve been rocking Carrier IQ-free (with SyndicateROM Frozen 1.2) for nearly a year now, and if you’ve been running CyanogenMod, so have you.
Moral of the story here? Root your phone. It’s easy, and your phone will run happier because of it.
I Had Nearly Forgotten About Apple’s Rainbow Logo
But this Apple gift catalog from 1983 shows the rainbow Apple was on everything from coffee mugs, t-shirts, race cars, carpeted wall-hangings, and kites.
Holy Cow, That’s A Load Of Links
Finally getting around to a post-vacation link dump — hang on for the ride…
- Why John Mayer quit twitter.
- There’s an abundance of stock art if you’re doing stories about hackers.
- If you want to browse reddit at work, run this full screen (more details).
- Speaking of reddit, metareddit is all about reddit and why AskReddit is far more useful than Yahoo! answers.
- Spock is not impressed.
- This is just sad: Our security auditor is an idiot.
- How to make photos looks like pencil drawings quickly and easily.
- Yet another reason I will keep voting for Ron Wyden: Bill Would Force Intel Chief to Renounce ‘Secret Patriot Act’.
- A note to Google recruiters (and on Google hiring practices).
- While I like Amazon’s Free App of The Day, I can see where developers would hate it: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core.
- Somebody has far too much time on their hands — and far too many dead flies.
- Just the Swearing: “The films and telly programs you like, but with the boring, non-sweary bits cut out.” (obviously a naughty language site)
- Has the Code of The Zodiac Killer Been Cracked? Possibly.
- D. B. Cooper is might be getting closer to being identified (NPR has a good story and follow up updates).
- I’m building my next server case out of Legos — just like this guy.
- It’s official: IE users are dumb as bag of hammers (Update: Or not — thanks Barney).
- If you’re designing sites or books for folks that have dyslexia, this font might be of use.
- John Gruber: On Succeeding Steve Jobs.
- How to configure your router for network-wide URL logging.
- Maximum PC’s guide to being online anywhere.
- The Oatmeal’s Summer State of The Web.
- You. Yes, you. You are not a photographer.
- What It’s Like to Interview a Celebrity: A GIF Story.
- Every city should be designed with more slides.
- Don’t Fear The Internet: Basic HTML & CSS for non-web designers.
- The 50 Things every creative should know (I need to forward that on to my designer sister-in-law).
- Little CSS Stuff Newcomers Get Confused About.
- Build your own 135 Terabyte Storage Server for $7300-ish.
- The advanced system recovery toolkit for times when you need to repair a buggered, locked, or virus-ridden system.
- Chosen is a great little plugin that makes select boxes more user-friendly.
- Did you know that you could have your loved one’s ashes put into bullets? Now you do.
- Did you know there’s an Opera house that’s built right on top of the border between Canada and the US and has a dividing line (that’s enforced) running through it? Now you do.
- Only in Japan: Clone yourself into what looks like an action figure.
My “pile o’ shortcuts” folder looks much better now. Video links coming tomorrow.
Reading Material
- Turn Google+ Into Facebook.
- Speaking of Google+, I’m on there so feel free to add me, and I might get around to doing something on there. Maybe. Or not.
- This would have been an incredible music festival. It’s fake, but would have been awesome.
- Cable boxes use more power than the fridge.
- Andy Baio got Kind Of Screwed (seriously, that just shows how messed up our copyright and fair-use laws are).
- Modern-world problems pale in comparison to ancient world problems.
- Looking for a sweet little geek gift? These pins on etsy are frickin’ hilarious.
- World War II: Before the War is an incredible collection of photos that is part of a larger In Focus World War II in Photos collection.
- I think I’ve linked to this before, but I will again as it bears repeating for anybody that does any sort of e-mail marketing (like me): Guide to CSS Support in e-mail clients. Personally, I’ve found better luck with in-line or hard-coded styles and variables on tables for layout than I have with many CSS elements.
- You think your smart phone home screen looks pretty pimp? You have nothing on these guys (most of which are Android).
- Google to retire Blogger and Picasa Brands.
- The Data Liberation Front Delivers Google Take Out. Try it out here. Google Takeout allows you to download a copy of your data stored within Google products..
- More Google news…Google dumps all 11+ million *.co.cc from its results (most of which were spam and phishing sites).
- Sprite Cow is yet another tool to help you create CSS sprites (something I need to try sometime).
- Paper.js is an open-source vector graphics framework using HTML5 Canvas.
- LauncherPro dev launches new “UberMusic” music player. It’s pretty dang slick.
- Book of Speed The business, psychology and technology of high-performance web apps.
- rep.licants.org is a web service allowing users to install an artificial intelligence (bot) on their Facebook and/or Twitter account.
- We need more adult-size playgrounds. Which means we need more places like this.
- One more…Import your Facebook friends into Google+, going through Yahoo! first.
Updated to fix a few typos…
Web Developers: Want To Be A Complete Jerk and Scare Visitors Away?
Make sure you implement annonying.js to anger as many people as possible. Be sure to read the comments for more obnoxious code, and throw in screwed.js while you’re at it.
Need To Make Sure Something’s Dead Before You RMA It?
Build yourself a few of these bad boys, and when you send something back for repair, you can be assured that you sent it there dead.
Android Screen Customization Is A Great Feature
But sometimes folks can go overboard and it can get really ugly.
First Person Mario
What if Super Mario Bros. was a first-person shooter? Might look something like this:
On a completely un-related note, Pick ’em games are starting up again tonight in a few hours. There are four tonight, four tomorrow (worth three points each), and then two each on Saturday/Sunday (worth five points each). Good luck!